‘Logan’s Run’ Redo Starts Anew With ‘Colony’s Ryan Condal

EXCLUSIVE:Warner Bros is back on track with its long-gestating remake of the pulp sci-fi classic Logan’s Run, and has tapped USA’s Colony co-creator/showrunner Ryan Condal to write a new script. Condal will be basing his screenplay on a treatment by X-Men Apocalypse co-writer Simon Kinberg, who will be producing along with Joel Silver and DC television universe honcho Greg Berlanti.

The film would be a fresh take on the 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson rather than a remake of the 1976 film that starred Michael York. In that novel, citizens of a future society are executed upon reaching their 21st birthday, their age indicated by a glowing crystal embedded in their palm that changes color every seven years until turning black on “Lastday,” at which point they must report to euthanasia stations called “sleepshops.” Those who refuse and try to escape to a rumored refuge called Sanctuary are chased down and executed by agents called “sandmen.” The story follows Logan-5, a sandman who upon turning 21 decides to go out on a high note by locating and dismantling Sanctuary, until he becomes converted to that cause. The 1976 film aged up the premise, setting 30 as the kill-by date rather than 21.

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Silver has been trying to get the Logan’s Run remake going at WB for nearly 20 years, and at various points Bryan Singer & Christopher McQuarrie, Joseph Kosinski, Carl Erik Rinsch & screenwriter Alex Garland, Nicolas Winding Refn (whose version would have starred Ryan Gosling and Rose Byrne), and even video game producer Ken Levine have been attached to the film. Often wildly disparate concepts for the remake have been under consideration, most recently a version that would see a woman playing Logan-5. Condal’s signing on to expand on Kinberg’s as-yet unrevealed idea suggests WB has settled on a version they’re happy with.

Condal is co-creator and executive producer of USA Network’s Colony, which was renewed for a second season in February and is set to return in early 2017. He’s also continuing his relationship with his Colony co-creator Carlton Cuse; the pair are currently rewriting the script for Rampage, an adaptation of the seminal arcade game about giant monsters destroying cities directed by San Andreas helmer Brad Peyton and set to star Dwayne Johnson. He’s repped by WME, Grandview and lawyer Jeff Frankel.

Logan’s Run is one of several incoming relaunches of classic science fiction properties, including a TV series remake of Barbarella from Gaumont International Television set for Amazon and written by Skyfall duo Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.